Afterlife
by QuoteMyFoot
Summary: Kieran hates the idea of retirement, but Oscar convinces him that it's not ALL bad. Oscar/Kieran friendship. Oneshot. Post-FE10.


Afterlife

It was preposterous! It was absurd! It was . . . was . . .

It was what he had expected.

Retirement, oh, how Kieran loathed that word and all it stood for with every fibre of his soul. Retirement! Why didn't they just hang him and have done with it? It was death - nay, it was worse than death - for a knight such as he!

The worst thing had been waiting for it to come. It had been just over 20 years since the war had ended, and with each passing year, Kieran felt his age just a little bit more.

Of course, Queen Elinicia hadn't called it retirement.

"_Sir Kieran, you must understand. Age and injury means sending you into battle puts your life at risk. You would be better serving Crimea in other ways."_

He was the great knight who had defeated the Giant Whippoorwill of Southern Crimea and they wanted him to train recruits! He'd fought giant scorpions and spiders, mad crocodiles, served Crimea faithfully in two bloody wars . . . true, several years back he'd suffered a leg injury that had never quite gotten better, but . . .

"Retirement! Pah! It's an insult to my great self!" Kieran muttered under his breath.

"_. . . You are asking me to retire, my queen?"_

"_Please don't give me that look, Kieran. I do appreciate your loyalty and bravery . . . but you can serve Crimea better this way."_

That, in Kieran's opinion, was arguable - except it was an order from the Queen herself, so it really . . . wasn't.

In a situation like this, there was only one person he could turn to for help.

"Where is that squinty-eyed archrival of mine?!"

"You're looking for me, Kieran?" A familiar voice asked.

Kieran jumped and spun around as fast as his bad leg would allow. "Oscar! Don't sneak up on me like that, you . . . sneaky . . ."

"Sneak?" Oscar chuckled slightly. "Oh, by the way, what did the Queen want?"

"Who told you about that?!"

"Everyone's talking about it in the barracks."

"Pah! That's typical! As soon as I, Sir Kieran, am called for an audience, the jealous soldiers spread rumours! I can't blame them for being so envious, but you would think they--"

Oscar cut in. "Actually most of them are really concerned. You _have_ seemed kind of edgy recently."

"I . . ." Kieran found himself lost for words, "I have?"

"Yes, a little bit. You've been snapping at people more easily than before . . . so what _did_ the Queen say?"

Kieran repeated what Queen Elinicia had said. Oscar looked thoughtful for several moments before he said anything.

"Kieran, you know she's right, don't you?"

". . . I don't like it."

The green-haired knight sighed. "I know you don't like it. But we're hardly getting younger . . ."

"What's with this 'we'?"

"You're not the only one whose suffered injuries, you know, and I'm just as old as you."

Kieran thought about this for a moment. "I never considered this before . . . wait, does that mean--?"

Oscar shrugged. "I've been meaning to ask about it. My age has been catching up with me recently."

"Not that I don't understand the feeling, but how can you abandon Crimea so--"

"I'm not _abandoning_ Crimea, or refusing to help her. I'm doing it in a different way."

He scowled; Oscar, as always when it came to arguments like this, seemed to have outspoken him . . . again. The green-haired knight sighed, obviously recognising the signs: Kieran wasn't going to argue the point, but he didn't agree with it.

"Look . . . Kieran. Think of it like this: you're passing on your skills, right?"

The brown haired veteran regarded Oscar suspiciously. "How do you mean?"

"Say you were to go into battle tomorrow and you died. What would happen to Crimea then?" He paused, but continued briskly before Kieran could do more than open his mouth to reply. "It'd be a pretty big blow to Crimea, wouldn't it?"

"Hmm . . . yes! Yes, I see what you're saying!" Kieran cheered up slightly. "What a tragedy it would be for poor, sweet Crimea, if her greatest warrior were to fall in battle before he could pass on his skills to the next generation! Such a disaster cannot be allowed to happen! Truly, this retirement . . . ahem, I mean . . . re_assignment_ is the death of the great Sir Kieran, loyal crimson knight of Crimea . . . but it will only be the beginning of Sir Kieran, great teacher of recruits!" He paused, lapsing into thought once more. "Hmm . . . that's not a very glorious title. I shall have to think about that one." Kieran brightened again as he added, "And in addition, I get to share it with the greatest man I know! . . . uh, with the exception of myself and the noble Sir Geoffrey, that is."

Oscar's tone spoke his surprise. "Really? Who?"

"Bah! Are your eyes so squinty that you cannot see a compliment when one presents itself?"

"You mean me?" Oscar's astonishment took him aback somewhat. True, he preferred to let others aspire to his greatness without pointing out their own positive attributes (being more like him could only be a boon, after all) but praise was not that rare from him . . . was it?

"Of course I mean you, Oscar you fool! You're my one true archrival! Only a great knight is worthy of that title . . . nay, not only a great knight, but a great person! You, the one and only archrival of Sir Kieran, must fall into both categories."

"Wow," The archrival said, "I had no idea you valued me so highly, Kieran. Thanks."

Kieran felt more than a little foolish at his outburst. "Yes . . . well. Archrivals can also be friends, can they not?"

"I don't know, isn't that basically . . . the opposite of the definition of 'archrival'?"

"Pah! Mere words, my scholarly knight, to which Sir Kieran is not bound!"

Oscar sighed, "You know, I'd much rather just be a plain old friend, rather than an archrival. It would make life so much . . . simpler."

"How can you say that?!" Kieran was appalled by his friend/archrival's words. "All I have strived for . . . to better myself! All to surpass you – my lifelong archrival!"

"Oh, uh . . . really?"

"Of course! Don't you remember the Mad King's War? Twenty-three years ago, we fought side-by-side, each struggling to better the other . . ."

"I thought it was more _me_ getting _you_ out of trouble . . ."

He chose to ignore that. "What a team we were! No enemy could withstand our might! None could break our combined defences! We were invincible – inseparable! Isn't that unbeatable co-operation something we want our students to aspire to?"

Oscar was speechless. Kieran grinned manically at him. "Ha ha! So I've finally outspoken you, archrival."

Trying to smile and sigh at the same time, Oscar shook his head at him. Kieran didn't mind. He knew the smile meant that he had won. "Alright, alright . . . I guess you're correct, Kieran."

There was a pause.

"And you know, if you're craving a fight, you could always help me out with my mercenary work."

"Aha! At last, a way to make the glory of Sir Kieran known throughout the country, and yet another thing to best my archrival in!"

Oscar sighed. "Of course, you _would_ turn it into another competition . . ."

**This was actually written before I played FE10, so . . . uh, yeah. Anyway, Kieran is my favourite Fire Emblem character ever, so I hope I got him right.**


End file.
